“This is how we learnt the lesson. Or shall I say, this is how we are taught at school.”
“We are told: This all happened due to some miscreants that created mistrust between us (Pakistanis) and Bengalis (Bangladeshis). India wanted to extract revenge and dismember us. But thanks to our valiant Islamic army we did not let that happen. We succeeded in keeping our western flank intact while giving our Bengali brothers the right to freedom,” said Naveed while quoting his history textbook. His tone didn’t seem convincing to me but I let him continue rather than dispute the textbook version.
Happy Master
Pakistan’s chief ally, the United States of America, did not practically intervene in the conflict. However, Islamabad enjoyed its tacit approval throughout the conflict. The USS Enterprise was dispatched to the Bay of Bengal in 1971 to boost the morale of its ally in the region. The hue and cry raised by human rights groups over genocides committed by the Pakistani army were silenced by a steady supply of military hardware and ammunition by the USA.
“The public was in shock when the news of Pakistani army surrendering to Indian army and their Bengali allied forces was broken to them. Everyone couldn’t believe on their eyes that how their army, strengthened by the spirit of Jihad, was defeated by the Indian army and their ‘Bengali mercenaries’. At least this is what was fed to them during the 1971 conflict,” said Naveed insisting that people for the first time became wary of Pakistani army’s alliance with the US army and lost their faith in military as an institution.
“The surrender of a combined 94,000 Pakistani military and paramilitary personnel was not a joke,” he added while referring to the fall of Dhaka on 16 December 1971. “All the architects of this humiliation got away with their crimes and were never brought to justice. The public felt betrayed by their own guardians,” he said while referring to the fact that though a formal inquiry of the war was conducted the main players of the debacle never got punished.
Holy Alliance
After a brief civilian rule from 1972 to 1977, military regime returned from the barracks to instigate a coup d’état. Under a complete agreement with the US, Pakistani military chief General Zia-ul-Haq overthrew Pakistan’s first democratically elected civilian leader Zulfiqar Bhutto and later hanged him on charges of treason and murder.
“While other murder cases drag on for years and years, Mr. Bhutto’s executed within five months. Look how swift our government reacts sometimes,” Naveed said with irony clear in his tone. “Lawlessness, vigilantism, parallel courts, police heavy-handedness and extra-judicial killings along with many other problems stem from the dilapidated justice system of Pakistan,” the young academic added.
Afghanistan was invaded by the USSR in December 1979 soon after General Zia took the reigns of the government. The Soviet invasion not only rang bells in Islamabad, it also stirred unease in Washington, DC. With Vietnam War humiliation in mind, the Americans seized on the opportunity to drag the Soviets into a long, bloody war that would deplete their power and leave them economically and militarily drained and exhausted.
Bureaucrats under the command of then US Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski initiated a plan that started the training of Afghan insurgents by the CIA months before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan itself.
“The US struck a holy alliance with the anti-Soviet insurgents who called themselves ‘mujahideen’ – the ones waging Jihad in the name of God – to bleed the USSR army to death in Afghanistan and seek revenge for role in the Vietnam defeat. To me this was the height of hypocrisy demonstrated by both the sides,” Naveed blasted.
“The capitalist Americans and Islamists in the Middle East and South Asia never saw eye to eye on any issue and always regarded each other as adversaries yet they struck an alliance against communism. What a historic alliance it was!”
Army, Inc.
While the world’s attention was set on the war in Afghanistan, General Zia-ul-Haq’s autocratic regime throttled the voices of reform and democracy in the country at the behest of his ‘Islamic agenda’. During his 11 years in power, the country never had free and fair democratic elections and the army, in connivance with the so-called Islamist forces, ruled with an iron fist. At this time, all important civil institutions like the judiciary, election commission, press, bureaucracy, and foreign service came under direct military control, and the army’s role in the country’s day to day affairs changed from an institution to a corporation.
The army initiated schemes for banking, insurance, heavy industries, housing, aviation, education, security firms, farms, and food production and soon became the country’s biggest enterprise. This in turn weakened private businesses that stood no chance to compete with the military backed business concerns due to its growing political and economic clout. Civil institutions also suffered a direct blow and languished due to deliberate neglect and apathy, partly due to political strife in the country.
General Zia-ul-Haq died in a mysterious plane crash along with an American general on 17 August 1988. The country returned to civilian rule after 11 years of military in power but little changed on the ground. The army, instead of returning to the barracks, realigned itself and started interfering in the politics by supporting its favorite political candidates.
Naveed agrees with the view that Pakistan’s problems are not the result of a few years of mismanagement and chaos. “The crises have been brewing since the military eclipsed the civilian institutions and democracy was wound up in favor of a martial law in 1958,” the 26-year-old Pakistani graduate said lamenting the fact that army’s role was only strengthened by the Americans. “We have never seen them (Americans) flaying military intervention in our politics. This is the mockery of democracy by any standards.”
“So what are the reasons behind the insurgency in the tribal regions of Pakistan including the latest bloodshed in Swat valley? What went so wrong that led the country to the brink of failure and labeled as a failed state?” I asked Naveed impromptu. Naveed, totally baffled by the complex nature of my questions, took me out for a walk. “Is it OK if I answer your questions in the open air? I need to breathe some fresh air,” he asked. I nodded and made a quick exit with him.
Why is the insurgency raging in many parts of Pakistan? Born in the tribal areas, whom will he blame for the deaths of innocent lives and suffering of millions of people? I kept on walking in the chilly evening wondering what he was going to say about the ground realities.
Isolation and Indifference
